Showing posts with label Daryl Hill. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Daryl Hill. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Battle Lines vs. Power Lines: Part 2

Battle Lines vs. Power Lines: Part 2
Posted: Nov 13, 2013 11:03 AM CSTUpdated: Nov 13, 2013 3:22 PM CST
By Mary Cate Mannion - email

KMOT.COM - Minot, ND - News, Weather, Sports

As Northwest North Dakota  continues to grow and develop the need for electricity grows exponentially.

"Having the transmission line like this gives us the ability to provide stability to the transmission system that is already in place," says Daryl Hill, Basin Electric.

By 2025 Basin Electric predicts its power demand will increase by 30 percent. To help meet the demand Basin electric has proposed a transmission line that they're calling the "AVS to Neset line," in a place which is lacking infrastructure.

"The infrastructure needs all three. The generation but still you have to have the ability to bring in other sources and that's what this transmission line will do. By bringing power from an existing resource that has the capacity up to an area that needs that," says Hill.
Now the 200-mile proposed transmission line will run 18 miles west of Killdeer up to Williston but it will all start here at the Antelope Valley Station.

Antelope Valley Station outside of Beulah is a coal burning power plant, with the ability and power to add another transmission line. Something Basin Electric has been planning for years.

"We started analyzing this transmission line in 2011. The study application was submitted in
early 2013, 2 years after we had already announced this and well after public announcements had been made about the line in terms of environmental impact statement," says Hill.
But now Professor Tom Isern at North Dakota state University announced a historic study of the Killdeer Battlefield that could interfere with 8 miles of Basin's proposed corridor.

"Really we didn't hear about that study until virtually days before the Public Service Commission had their public meetings scheduled on this line," says Hill.

Despite being surprised by the study, Basin Electric says it has already gained seven and a half miles of easements of the eight that are within the study area, which Public Service Commissioner Brian Kalk says is a positive.

"Every project we do whether it's a power line or a pipeline one of the questions I always ask percentage of easements they have. We aren't involved in easements at all but it's a nice way to gauge of how it is being received in the community," says Kalk.

And Hill says Basin Electric is more than willing to work with the various state and federal agencies involved in the permitting process.

"We have an obligation to serve. We have an obligation to get power up into that area so that the whole system doesn't go dark. Because nobody wins if northwest north Dakota is without power," says Hill.
The PSC has completed their hearings, but are still waiting on information that they requested from the Game and Fish Department, and the Historical society. Basin electric is also waiting on information from the Federal Government on an environmental impact study, and are hoping to start construction in 2014. 

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Wednesday, September 11, 2013

5 North Dakota Native American tribes pass resolution opposing Killdeer battlefield power line

  • First Posted: September 11, 2013 - 6:18 pm
    Last Updated: September 11, 2013 - 6:20 pm

BISMARCK, North Dakota — Five American Indian tribes in North Dakota have passed a resolution formally opposing a transmission line planned for the Killdeer Mountain Battlefield area.
Basin Electric Power Cooperative wants to build the 200-mile line from the Antelope Valley Station power plant near Beulah to near Tioga to deliver more electricity to the Bakken oil fields, where there is a growing demand for power. The Public Service Commission is scheduled to hold a third hearing on the project Thursday in Williston.
The proposed $300 million project — which also needs federal approval because Basin plans to seek financing from the U.S. Department of Agriculture — comes as a tribal alliance is trying to protect the Killdeer Mountains region from oil drilling.
The United Tribes said in its resolution that it opposes the project because it could disturb the remains of native people killed by the U.S. Army in 1864 and buried along an eight-mile stretch.
"The history of the Native Nations is filled with places of overwhelming sacred and cultural significance, with many places being identified only by a few persons, including places of overwhelming grief and tragedy," the resolution said.
Scott Davis, executive director for the North Dakota Indian Affairs Commission, said the sites are important to Native Americans like himself, but the tribes are only now formally opposing a project that's been in the works for years.
"If I was a tribal leader, I would hope I would know about a cultural site that's important to my tribe," he said. "Burial sites, spiritual sites — those are very important to our people."
Basin spokesman Daryl Hill said Wednesday the company already has obtained about 75 percent of the required easements from property owners along the eight-mile line. The Bismarck-based company has no plans to deviate from its original route, he said.
"Our intention is to move forward," Hill said.
The tribes' resolution will be one of the factors the PSC takes into account, he said.
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Friday, September 6, 2013

Meeting N.D.’s increased need for electricity

Meeting N.D.’s increased need for electricity

September 6, 2013
JILL SCHRAMM - Staff Writer (jschramm@minotdailynews.com) , Minot Daily News
Hearings are under way on a proposed 200-mile transmission line designed to meet the increased demand for electricity in northwestern North Dakota.
The North Dakota Public Service Commission held hearings Wednesday in Killdeer and Thursday in Tioga on a request from Basin Electric Power Cooperative to construct a $300 million transmission project from Antelope Valley Station near Beulah to the Neset 230-kilovolt Substation east of Tioga. A final hearing will be held Sept. 12 at 10 a.m. in City Hall in Williston.
The transmission line is mapped to run west from Antelope Valley, crossing just north of Killdeer and continuing toward U.S. Highway 85, where it veers to the northwest toward Williston. From Williston, the line runs northeast to the Neset substation east of Tioga. The 345-kilovolt transmission line would interconnect with the existing Charlie Creek Substation near Grassy Butte and with the Western Area Power Administration's Williston Substation. Two new substations would be built near Williston and near the current Neset 230-kilovolt Substation.
Some residents of the Killdeer area have raised concern about the path, which crosses through a historical battlefield in the Killdeer Mountains. The cooperative eliminated a proposed substation near Killdeer in response to concerns about the battleground. The substation could be relocated to another area at a future time, said Mary Miller, communications manager at Basin Electric, Bismarck.
Although pleased with the decision on the substation, members of Killdeer Mountain Alliance, a conservation group, still believe the power line route should be changed.
"It is such an assault on the whole idea of our nation's history, of what that battle was about and the memories of those who fought and died," said Rob Sand, co-chairman of the alliance, Killdeer. "It's hard to understand that they can't reroute to steer clear of this battlefield."
The Killdeer Mountain Battlefield consists of about 70,000 acres or 26 square miles that was the site of one of the U.S. government's largest battles against native tribes. It involved Gen. Alfred Sully and Lakota and Dakota tribes in 1864.
Sand said the area continues to be part of archeological studies.
He added that testimony from a wildlife biologist also is expected at the Williston hearing on the impact of the transmission project on golden eagles, which have three nesting areas in the Killdeer Mountains.
"We intend to move forward with the line route as sited in the application," Miller said. "We have been working on it for quite some time and have about 75 percent of the private landowners' easements in place."
Some state land is involved and those easements also have been falling into place, she said.
Barring delays in the permitting process, Basin Electric plans to begin construction in 2014 and complete work in 2016.
"By 2025, our system is predicted to grow by more than 1,600 megawatts. More than 1,000 of that is attributed just to this area," Miller said of northwestern North Dakota. One megawatt of generating capacity can support an average 800 homes.
"The continuous growth taking place in western North Dakota is unprecedented," Miller said. "Obviously, it has put a strain on our system and will require additional transmission to continue to serve that entire area with reliable electricity. It's important that we be able to add this line to maintain reliability and continue service."
Daryl Hill, manager of media and community relations for Basin Electric, said the demand in northwestern North Dakota comes from a combination of electrical use in the oil fields and population growth.
The proposed transmission is just part of the solution to meeting the demand, he said. Basin Electric recently started up a 45-megawatt natural gas power plant northwest of Williston as the first of three plants to be established there by early 2015. At the end of November, Basin Electric expects to have another unit near Watford City on line and eventually plans to add two more units.

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Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Basin Electric plans power line through Killdeer Mountains

Published September 04, 2013, 12:00 AM

Basin Electric plans power line through Killdeer Mountains

KILLDEER — Basin Electric Power Cooperative will have to answer to a lot of angry people at a public hearing in Killdeer today. The company, citing booming oil development and its ripple effects, has proposed a new transmission line that would go through the Killdeer Mountain Battlefield site, alarming many.
By: Katherine Lymn, The Dickinson Press

  • Mountains
    • image
    In this Aug. 15 photo, conservationist Rob Sand discusses the Killdeer Mountains and the threats they face from oil. Now, the Killdeer Mountain Alliance is fighting another foe — a proposed power line the group says would go right through the historic Killdeer Mountain Battlefield site.
    KILLDEER — Basin Electric Power Cooperative will have to answer to a lot of angry people at a public hearing in Killdeer today.
    The company, citing booming oil development and its ripple effects, has proposed a new transmission line that would go through the Killdeer Mountain Battlefield site, alarming many.
    The $300 million project would route a 200-mile, 345-kilovolt transmission line from the existing Antelope Valley Station near Beulah, west through Killdeer and then north through Williston, ending at a substation near Tioga.
    It would run through the boundaries of a National Park Service study led by North Dakota State University history professor Tom Isern, who characterizes the battlefield as the most significant historic site in the state.
    The 1864 Battle of Killdeer Mountain was a faceoff between native Dakota and Lakota fighters and Brig. Gen. Alfred Sully’s forces. With more than 2,000 fighters on each side, Isern said, “it’s the largest military engagement ever to take place on the Great Plains.”
    For its entire nine-state service area, Basin projects needing to grow by more than 1,600 megawatts by 2025 — and 1,000 megawatts of that is just for oil-related growth.
    “There’s a lot of demand being placed on everybody because of what’s going on in western and northwestern North Dakota,” Basin spokesman Daryl Hill said. “This is just one part of the challenges everybody faces to cope or to keep up with this oil development that’s occurring.”
    Hill said an archeologist Basin hired didn’t see anything of significance in a preliminary survey, but Basin only recently learned of the NDSU study, so “this isn’t the end of the story.”
    Basin spokeswoman Mary Miller cautioned, though, that Basin has had this route planned for a while and it’s not the company’s intent to move the line.
    Some opponents of the project have questioned whether Basin’s archeologist did a thorough enough look at the project site.
    Conservationist Rob Sand, who lives near the site and fights for the mountain’s preservation with the Killdeer Mountain Alliance, said the battlefield is not just a 1-acre site with a monument on it, but in fact “covers a great deal of area.”
    “Unfortunately it had to be a citizens’ group that noticed it and put it together,” he said.
    “I think [Basin] looked at each spot where they were gonna put a power pole and just did a minimal survey — a required survey — of that and didn’t look at the big picture,” Sand said.
    Public Service Commission Chair Brian Kalk said the size of this project is the reason for three different public hearings — Tioga and Williston will also have hearings on Thursday and Thursday, Sept. 12, respectively.
    “Of all the things that we do, power lines are by far the most difficult and the most contentious,” he said.
    The PSC can’t tell a company how to do a project, but it can reject an application and explain why, Kalk said.
    Sand said he’s also concerned with what the power lines would do to the viewscape.
    “This is a real serious problem and needs to be resolved,” Sand said, “and I’m sure hoping that Basin Electric and the Public Service Commission will see this as an opportunity to do the right thing and move it off of the battlefield for sure but also look at the whole viewscape of the Killdeer Mountains.”
    Kalk encouraged members of the public to bring their own recommendations for the project if they’re unhappy with the current plan.
    This project is the latest in a series of apparent threats to the Killdeer Mountains, as oil development seeped in and the Alliance has been working to stop further drilling.
    “It’s pretty overwhelming to try to even think what’s gonna happen because [the Mountains] could easily just be covered with oil wells and with roads and with power lines,” Sand said.
    “We have to be hopeful that there can be some kind of a sensitive resolution to these problems.”
    The public hearing will be at Killdeer City Hall, 165 Railroad St. SE at 9:30 MDT.
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    Thursday, August 29, 2013

    Basin wants power line inside Killdeer Mountains battlefield study area

    Basin wants power line inside Killdeer Mountains battlefield study area



    BISMARCK, N.D. — The fight to preserve the Killdeer Mountain historic battlefield from oil development will move to another front, this time where a power company plans to build transmission lines and a substation in the heart of where the battle was fought.
    Basin Electric Power Cooperative plans to build a new major line from its Antelope Valley Stations near Beulah west and north into the Bakken to help fill a huge appetite for electricity in the oil patch.
    The transmission line route and a new substation would be located where the U.S. Army, led by Brig. Gen. Alfred Sully, and several bands of Sioux engaged in 1864.
    It is an area just selected by the National Park Service for its American Battlefield Protection Program. The two-year study will be led by Tom Isern, history professor at North Dakota State University, who signed the contract days ago.
    The Public Service Commission will hold a hearing at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at the Killdeer City Hall to decide whether to put the transmission project on a fast track. Basin is asking the PSC to waive certain procedures and timelines and approve the 200-mile route for spring construction.
    Basin's project coordinator, Curt Pearson, said Basin has only known about the NPS study since Tuesday.
    Pearson said Basin hired a contract archaeologist to inventory the area as part of its application and environmental process.
    "No significant cultural sites were identified that would be impacted by this transmission line project," Pearson said. "Because this NPS study is a new development that came about after the required inventories and reports were completed and submitted to the review agencies, we have not had time to fully analyze the significance of this situation."
    He said Basin hopes to come to a reasonable conclusion "as we work through this issue."
    Isern said the study will look at battlefield history and archaeology and identify threats to its integrity. Some of the integrity involves aesthetics, he said.
    "If they were going to situate a power line to provide maximum disruption to the sightline of this battlefield, this plan will do it," he said.
    Rob Sand, who lives near the historic battlefield, is a member of the Killdeer Mountain Alliance. The alliance was formed to give a voice to the mountains and battlefield when Hess Corp. filed for permits to set an eight-well drilling pad near the battlefield early this year.
    "It's one thing after another. It is alarming. We've loved it and taken it for granted," Sand said.
    He said Isern's study coupled with a recent tour of significant sites in the oil patch by Gov. Jack Dalrymple, as a member of the state Industrial Commission that approves drilling permits, should give pause to Basin's plans.
    "The Industrial Commission is at least pretending to be interested in protecting special places and with Isern's study, those two things say they should hold off and don't be putting something like that out there," Sand said. "If they're starting to consider special places, the state needs to support that."
    Even as Basin goes through the formal process to build the new 345-kV line from its coal plant to the oil patch, it has filed notice that it wants to build a second line, using the alternate route studied for the one going through the PSC hearings next week.
    The second line would kick off the new substation and be routed north through the battlefield zone toward the oil patch.
    Basin spokesman Daryl Hill said the second line would provide more power to the oil patch region and build in some redundancy in case of a major outage.
    "As power load studies have progressed, there's good cause for using that alternate as well," Hill said.
    Isern said the study will document "what went down and where" during the battle, which he said is the largest Army and Plains Indian engagement to ever take place in the Great Plains.
    "It was way bigger than (Custer's) Battle of the Little Bighorn. Sully came out with his mid-century modern warfare, formed a square and he had all he could handle. Eventually, he turned his howitzers on the women and children on the slopes," Isern said.
    Sully brought 2,200 men to fight 1,600 Sioux. Twelve years later, Custer took 650 men to fight an estimated 900 to 2,500 Plains Indians.
    The NDSU study will look at the historical significance of five known battlefields in North Dakota, including Killdeer Mountain, for possible inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places.
    Hill said Basin has filed notice for a supplemental environmental impact statement for the second line.
    The environmental clearance is required for both projects because the cooperative will use federal financing under the USDA Rural Utilities Service.
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